What is the right to be forgotten?
The right to be forgotten is a European data protection right that lets a person ask a search engine to stop linking to results about them where the information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant. It is a delisting right rather than a deletion right: a successful request removes the link from results for that person's name, while the underlying web page stays online at its own address. It originates in a 2014 Court of Justice ruling and now sits inside Article 17 of the GDPR. It applies in the European Union and the wider European Economic Area.
Where the right to be forgotten came from
The right was created by a judgment rather than a statute. In Google Spain SL v Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos and Mario Costeja Gonzalez, Case C-131/12, decided on 13 May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union considered a Spanish newspaper notice from 1998 about a property auction connected to a social security debt. The debt had long been resolved. The notice was still the first thing a search for the man's name returned.
The Court held that a search engine operator processes personal data and acts as a controller when it indexes and ranks results, and that in some circumstances a person may require it to remove links from the results returned for their name, even where the original publication remains lawful. That separation of the index from the source is the whole mechanism.
GDPR erasure and delisting are two different things
When the General Data Protection Regulation took effect, the right was written into statute as Article 17 of the GDPR, the right to erasure. Article 17 binds any data controller, not only search engines: it gives a person grounds to ask an organisation holding their personal data to delete it.
A delisting request to a search engine is one application of that right. It is the most visible one, because search results are how most people encounter information about a stranger, but it is narrower than erasure in general. The article itself, its grounds and its exemptions are covered on GDPR Article 17.
How a delisting request is decided
There is no automatic entitlement. The operator has to balance the individual's privacy and data protection rights against the public interest in finding the information, and against the publisher's and the public's interest in expression.
The factors that carry weight are consistent: whether the person has a role in public life, how old the information is, whether it concerns their professional or private life, whether it was published journalistically, whether it relates to a criminal conviction, and whether it is a special category of data such as health or political opinion. A sitting official rarely succeeds against material about their office. A private individual usually has a stronger case about a decade old personal matter.
Two later rulings shaped what a requester has to bring. In Google LLC v CNIL, Case C-507/17, decided in September 2019, the Court held that EU law does not require delisting on every version of a search engine worldwide: the obligation covers the versions accessible in EU member states, together with measures that seriously discourage access from within the EU. In TU and RE v Google LLC, Case C-460/20, decided in December 2022, the Court held that where a request is based on the information being inaccurate, the burden of showing manifest inaccuracy sits with the person asking, though only to the extent of evidence they can reasonably be expected to obtain.
Requests are filed through the operator's own process. Google's legal removal request process is the entry point for its European privacy removals, alongside its other legally based removal routes.
Scope and limits: what it never touches
| The right reaches | The right does not reach |
|---|---|
| Links in search results returned for a person's name | The source page, which stays online at its address |
| Search engine versions accessible in the EU and EEA | Versions of the search engine outside the EU and EEA |
| Inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive or outdated personal data | Information with a continuing public interest |
| Ordinary individuals in ordinary circumstances | People acting in a public role, regarding that role |
| The result for a name query | The result for other queries, or a direct link |
Two consequences follow that are worth stating plainly. Delisting does not delete anything, so the newspaper article, the court listing or the blog post continues to exist and can still be cited. And a refusal is common: the balance often falls the other way, particularly for professional information and for anything a court or a regulator published.
Google delisting in practice
Google publishes a transparency report on delisting requests covering European privacy removals, including how many URLs it has been asked to delist, how many it acted on, and which sites are most often the subject of requests. It is the closest thing to an independent picture of how the right actually works, and it is worth reading before forming an expectation about your own request.
The mechanics of filing, what evidence helps, how long it takes and the common reasons for refusal are covered on how to request right to be forgotten.
If you are not in Europe
The right is territorial. Living in the United States, or being written about by an American publication, does not bring you inside it, and results shown to searchers in the United States are not covered even where a European delisting has been granted. What Americans have instead is set out on right to be forgotten in the US, and where nothing legal applies, the remaining option is search suppression.
None of this is legal advice, and a data protection request in a specific country needs advice from someone qualified there. The judgments, the regulation and the operator's own process are linked above so you can read the primary sources yourself. Whether a delisting route is even open to you depends on where you are and who published the material, and it is one of the first things a reputation audit establishes.
Questions about what is the right to be forgotten?
What is right to be forgotten?
It is a European data protection right that lets a person ask a search engine to stop linking to results about them when the information is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive or out of date. It removes the link from results for that person's name. The underlying page stays online.
What are the rules for the right to be forgotten?
The operator balances the person's privacy rights against the public interest in the information. Age of the material, whether the person has a public role, whether it was journalism, and whether it involves special category data all weigh in the decision. There is no automatic entitlement.
Does the right to be forgotten delete the web page?
No. It is a delisting right. A granted request stops the link appearing in results for your name on European versions of the search engine. The page remains at its address and can still be reached directly or through other queries.
Does the right to be forgotten apply worldwide?
No. The Court of Justice held in 2019 that EU law does not require delisting on all versions of a search engine globally. The obligation covers versions accessible in EU member states, together with measures that seriously discourage access from within the EU.